Australian Senior of the Year, 2021, Miriam Rose Ungenmerr-Baumann
From her acceptance speech:
"I've learnt to walk in two worlds and live in towns and cities, and even worked in them.
"Now is the time for you to come closer to understand us and how we live."
"When you come to visit or work in our communities and leave your comfort zones, I ask that you bring your knowledge and wisdom.
"But we ask you also to learn and understand how we live and function in our communities, and listen to what [our] needs are."
The MSC honour Miriam Rose for her national acclaim.
There are many links between Miriam Rose and the MSC.
* She is from Daly River/ Nauiyu, the mission served by many MSC. She was baptised as a Catholic at the age of 15.
* She taught at the primary school and was a community leader.
* She was on the staff at St John’s College, Darwin, MSC and OLSH staffed in those years.
* She is celebrated for her art, including her well-known series of Stations of the Cross.
* The patron of her Foundation is Frank Brennan MSC.
We honour her for her spirituality: Dadirri, Deep listening.
From her description of Dadirri, 1998:
in recent times we have come to listen to a most sacred word that comes to us from God, our Father. This new Word is Jesus. I have said how Dadirri, which is the deep listening and quiet stillness, can make us whole and revive us. This is a special quality in our lives. It is born in our culture. The Word of God finds a home here. Jesus enriches and renews our culture.
He gently stirs as stillness, but he does not take away our peace. We like to hear words of peace, like Jesus spoke. We want to listen and to pass on words that are true and good—but the words that have come to us through our culture and traditions; and like the words that come to us in the Gospel of Jesus.
This is what I long for: that with these words to guide us, everyone will come to listen to the Sound of God. We have to try to listen—to the God within us—to our own country—and to one another.
